Retinitis pigmentosa with an analysis of seventeen cases appearing in deaf-mutes : being an essay for which was awarded the Alvarenga Prize of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, July, 1908 / by William T. Shoemaker ; laboratory examinations of the blood and urine by John M. Swan.

  • Shoemaker, William T. (William Toy), 1869-1942.
Date:
[1909]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Retinitis pigmentosa with an analysis of seventeen cases appearing in deaf-mutes : being an essay for which was awarded the Alvarenga Prize of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, July, 1908 / by William T. Shoemaker ; laboratory examinations of the blood and urine by John M. Swan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    were extensive, and especially marked in the inner layers. Most of the pigment was in cells; some of it, however, was free. The walls of the vessels contained much pigment located partly in the outer sheaths, and partly in the cells within the vessel walls. Cross sec- tions of vessels completely obliterated by pigment packed within the lumen were found. The macula lutea was well differentiated as a distinct excavation. The cells of the pars ciliaris retinas were deeply pig- mented and overgrown. Between the epithelial layer of the pars ciliaris and the chorioid, was a thick layer of newly formed fibro-connective tissue. In the optic nerve, the interfascicular connective tissue was greatly thickened, the nerve-fibre bundles were thin and distinctly atrophic. The central vessels showed very little change, but the smaller vessels, espe- cially the capillaries, showed a marked hyaline degenera- tion of their walls. The capillary walls were very thick and their lumina very narrow. The chorioid was thickened, due to a rich increase of the intervascular stroma, which contained consider- able pigment. The walls of the smaller and larger chorioidal vessels were thickened and sclerosed; the structure of the adventitia was indistinct, opaque and granular. In many places, the choriocapillaris could not be made out with certainty; in others it was distinct. Drusen bodies, found by other observers, were absent in Wagenmann's case.